Christians in Sudan, Asia ordered to renounce faith or lose coronavirus aid

Give up their faith or lose emergency COVID-19 aid.

This is the choice Christians in Southeast Asia and Sudan are currently facing, the Christian Post reports.

Asia communications director at Open Doors International Jan Verrmeer says the organization has had an overwhelming number of reports of Christians saying their communities would not provide them with food if they did not turn away from their Christian beliefs.

"While some have returned to the dominant religion in their country, others have contemplated suicide," Vermeer says.

Open Doors says believers in Bangaldesh, India, Sudan, and Malaysia are encountering this persecution.

One pastor working in Southeast Asia with Open Doors says governments are providing people with assistance, but Christians who come from a different faith background are not receiving that same support.

"The village head normally discriminates against the Christians," the pastor says. "They say, ‘Well, you're Christian. You became a Christian so you are not part of this support.

"People may die or convert back to Islam if they don't have the means to survive."

Without the COVID-19 relief these villagers are receiving, many Christians would be facing malnutrition or starvation.

The pastor says many of these believers being tested are new in their faith.

"New believers only have a fragile faith and need to become stronger in the Lord," the pastor says.

Christians in Sudan must turn their back on their biblical faith completely and return to Islam or else face hunger and homelessness as the pandemic continues.

A pastor in the area explains that believers who convert from Islam are not given any family or community support after they leave the Muslim faith.

Being in lockdown and unable to work, many Christians are facing evictions when they cannot pay their rent.

"When Christian converts do ask for help from their Muslim community, they are told they have to give up Christianity if they want to be helped," the pastor says. "It is a tragedy."

A group of Christian students in East Malaysia was similarly told they would not receive food if they did not convert back to Islam.

Open Doors reported previously the Vietnamese government denied food aid to more than 100 Christians.

"You are Christians and your God shall take care of your family!" the families were told.

Many of these believers live in remote and poorly-resourced areas and cannot afford to lose government support, particularly during a global pandemic.

Sudan is the seventh-worst country in the world for persecution of Christians, according to the Open Doors USA World Watch List.